HORALs Oude Geuze Mega Blend
Brouwerij Boon
Belgium
7.00% ABV

C: Cloudy
H: Golden Yellow
N: Tart, Funky, Strong Bret

HopScotch; Hazy golden ale with a mid-sized, fizzy, white head. Good retention. The aroma is a citric funk bomb – lemon, barnyard manure, sweaty socks, old sharp cheese and a touch of sulfur. Medium-bodied and very effervescent. I was hoping the acidity would run rampant in the flavor and make my eyes involuntarily squint shut after each sip. Unfortunately, plenty of residual sugar keeps the acidity and funk in check. Still tart and tangy, but not sour. Finishes tart, lightly sweet and a touch bitter… then dries way out. A damn fine beer although it lacks any real intensity. A dissapointment despite my fairly high rating. I expected this one to change my life and it didn’t. I guess I’ll have to continue my subscription to Prozac, The Magazine.
Score; 3.7

The Ferm; Ohh Yeahh a Geuze, I love me some sour/funky beers.
Beer poured a Golden Yellow in color, and was funky from the get go. The nose was filled with crazy citrusy bitterness (lemon like), and then the funk from the Bret came out. The taste of this beer was a bit of a let down from the amount of sourness I got from the nose. It was very good though and a treat to drink. There was a bit more sugar in it than expected which helped to calm down some of the sourness to the beer. I would hunt this bottle down again though. It was a VERY ENJOYABLE beer.
Score; 4.412

Overall: 4.056

Kentucky Breakfast Stout
Founders Brewing Co.
Grand Rapids, MI
11.20% ABV

C: Too Dark To Tell
H: Yep, its Black
N: Toasted/Roasted Malts and Bourbon are Dominant, Light Coffee

Kirk Diggler;
A: Toasted / Roasted malts are dominant, No hop aromas, no esthers. Bourbon is especially present which combines with coffee and slight chocolate aromatics.
A: Pours black and couldn’t see through even when held to light. (Maybe I need a beer flashlight?) The head was thin and off-white and quickly dissipated.
F: As in the aroma, toasted and roasted malts are present, but the balance of this beer leans toward the coffee and bourbon. The only hops that I could possibly perceive would be in the finish which are coupled with an oak bitterness/tang.
M: To me this beer was surprisingly light in body, and I was expecting more chew. There is a slight warmth from the bourbon but not overpowering. I couldn’t perceive any creamy feeling. There was a slight astringency from the oak/bourbon/hops in the finish but is appropriate to style.
O: I really enjoyed this beer: The coffee and bourbon remind me of getting the morning coffee w/ my grandpa, and then he decided to spike it with some of his cold medicine Ok, ok, I know I was 10, but he said it would put hair on my chest!!
Score; 4.3

The Ferm; Well there is no real intro for this beer, it is what it is. It is KBS. Poured dark, and smelled lovely. The Beer attacked the palate like a planned out bank robbery, actually no more like the robbery from the Oceans movies. Matt Damon, I mean the Bourbon, was really well balanced in this, not over powering all the other players. There were hints of coffee that left a nice roasty quality, and then the vanilla. Most Bourbon Barrel Beers have an off flavor of vanilla, Founders was on point with the amount of vanilla in this beer. It was just enough to get you coming back for more. Great Beer!
Score; 4.891

Overall: 4.5955

Pipeline Porter
Kona Brewing Co.
Kona, Ha.
5.40%

C: Appears Clear
H: Dark Ruby/Brown
N: Coffee and a Little More Coffee

KirkDiggler;
A: Coffee takes center stage in aromatics w/ lingering roasted malts in the background. No hop/esther aromatics.

A: Pours Dark brown w/ a minimal white/tan head that quickly dissipated.

F: Coffee and roasted malts, no hop/other flavors. Coffee overpowers everything as far as taste goes.

M: Minimal in body, low carb, no creaminess, astringent from the coffee.

O: While this beer is brewed to style, there are a few minor flaws that could be addressed: Aroma is overpowered with coffee: I would have liked more of the malt character to shine through. The coffee is good, but I believe that balance is important. Flavor is also overbalanced with the coffee, almost to the point where I believe I’m drinking a cup of coffee and not a beer. M: I believe that with an increase in malt character/presence that the body will greatly improve.
(29/50) / (2.9)

The Ferm; Thanks to a new beer bud for bringing this over, I have a feeling you the readers will be seeing some of this guy around sometime soon. For now I will just call him Evil Twin.
Clear stated that this is the Coffee Version of the Kona Porter, which is brewed in limited quantities, according to the bottle. I have rarely found a bottle to lie, while the description from the brewery might be a little over the top they are usually on point with the basics. This bottle didn’t lie.
Coffee was up front and personal with this beer from the get go. Coffee was strong in the nose, strong on the attack, and sat down to chill on you palate. I did get some roasted malt qualities in the body of the beer but they were quickly over powered by the coffee. Usually when a beer is so heavy on coffee the body would be pretty thick, this was not. The body was light and thin, making for an easy drinking coffee beer. The fact that this beer was so refreshing, makes it a great solution for the Imperial Stout Lover, looking for a lighter beer, during the summer months.
Score:3.21

Overall Score: 3.055

Isabelle Proximus
The Lost Abbey
San Marcos, Ca
7.00% ABV

C. Clear
H. Golden Yellow
N. A little citrus and lemon, bit of funk to it

Ahh Isabelle how I have longed to have you touch my lips….OK sorry that was a bit over the top. How can you not be super geeked out to try a beer that was a collaborative effort of five brewers – Sam Calagione (Dogfish), Tomme Arthur (The Lost Abbey), Adam Avery (Avery Brewing), Rob Todd (Allagash), and Vinnie Cirulzo (Russian River)? Well first and foremost thanks to my buddy Chris for sharing this with me. Your awesome and Happy Belated Birthday!

Well to the beer, remember the saying “Too Many Cooks In the Kitchen Ruin the Stew”. Well its a damn good thing that this list of five super-brewers were not making stew. They instead collaborated on a beer that poured Golden in color and was a little cloudy. I am not going to lie I didnt even give it a proper smell before I dug right into the beer. When it touched my lips I was shocked. I honestly thought that this beer was going to be average and a HUGE product of “Beer Hype”. Boy was I wrong. This was a sexy beer from every angle and the flavor was straight heavenly. It was strong lemon and citrus flavors, very similar to other “Sour” beers. A good amount of acidity. Hints of hibiscus/sweet flower flavors. That barnyard funk / farmhouse was present.

While this is not an easy beer to come by currently, being that it was released in 2006 in very limited quantities, if you get a chance to try this….don’t pass it up. This is a fine example of an American Wild Ale. An amazing treat!

Score: 4.995

Black Flag Imperial Stout (Hop Harvest Edition)
Beer Valley Brewing Company
Ontario, Oregon
11% ABV

C: To Dark to Tell
H: Dark
N: Burnt Grain, Hoppy Floral, Sweet Fruit

Beer Drinker; We’re ending with Black Flag Imperial Stout. The label said this is the 2009 Fresh Hop Edition. Before this beer, I always associated Black Flag with the band and the wannabe anarchist skaters from my home town that listened to them. So it was a bit negative. We called one of the kids Ollie, mockingly, as none of them could ever come close to pulling off that trick!

But this beer has provided a new memory. Very hoppy with harsh alcohol, which I guess you might expect considering it’s 11%. There are solid chocolate flavors with a touch of vanilla, too. Good beer, and since it’s always tough to be #30 in a lineup, I’d drink it again for sure. Final score… 3.4567

The Ferm; Well we end the week on a good note. A hopped up Imperial Stout, sounds like Heaven to me. This Imperial Stout is brewed once a year and then slammed with 200 lbs of fresh hops. I expected a Hop bomb followed by coffee. Well I was sort-a right. This beer was sort of a Cluster F*%! of flavors. The beer itself was very good but the hops took away from the stout or maybe the stout took away from the hops. Well personally I would prefer you to take 200 lbs of hops and slam it into an IPA or something. Overall a great idea just not what I expected.
Score; 3.425

Overall: 3.44085 (once again we don’t discuss scores till after both are done with their reviews!)